Wachovia charged me over $300 in NSF fees. But even after the fees, I still had a positive balance. Maryland

Edward (the very voice of reason) is correct that the Fed is looking at this issue. However, if your fees were caused by drawing against unavailable funds, there isn't any light at the end of the tunnel for you.

What the Fed is reviewing is if banks should be able to charge you an overdraft fee when the actual transaction never overdrew the account. For instance, if you use your card at a pump and pump $25 worth of gas against your $50 balance, but the gas station places a $100 hold. In today's world, some banks will hit that transaction with an OD fee because the hold exceeded the available balance.

It appears that proposed changes won't help if you pump $50 worth of gas against a $25 balance, but make a deposit the next day, prior to the gas station remitting. In that case you'll still get the fee.

The best suggestion given above is to cut up the debit card, it's not your friend. Cash and checks only will save you a bundle.

pay for your vehicle Now, you can't bank properly.
Why is that not surprising?

April, I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but unfortunately I have to agree with the others. At this point, sadly what Wachovia is doing is in fact legal.

But here's the kicker. You can take comfort in knowing that your anger is not misguided or misdirected. The Federal Reserve Board agrees with you. The practice that Wachovia is using here is charging fees for holds or pending transactions before the transactions are posted or deducted from your account. As Jim, Edgeman and all of the others stated, it's legal for banks to do this.....now. The Federal Reserve Board knows it's legal and so they realize that until the laws change, the banks can and will continue to do this.

Now why would the Federal Reserve Board (THE HEAD BANK OF THE U.S.) put this issue on the radar and seek to put a stop to it, if they themselves didn't think it was wrong, just like thousands of customers like yourself. Why would they waste their time and more importantly why would they go AGAINST their fellow and subordinate bankers? Some of their proposed regulation changes are set to go into law at the beginning of 2010. This particular issue of charging fees for holds was not one of those included in that group. And of course there's no indication yet of how these remaining proposals might be affected now that many banks have sinced crashed and burned on their own......like your beloved Wachovia.

Yes it's bad biz practice and shud be made illegal....banks are rippign consumers off...and many are victimized. Not every person should be forced to keep written registries of their balance that's what technology is for and it is deceptively done by the banks and with huge error... we can fly to the moon create bigger better i phones but banks can't keep accurate balances of their customers accts online or by phone? it's a scam to rip consumers off....it's theft unethical and bad practice...and again done mostly by large errors and deceptive numbers being posted or told to bank customers... why on earth shud people have to also pay 35.00 for every 'overdrawn' charge and by which the method it is done....it is thievery and shud be made illegal...chicoman and co need to shut their traps and get a new hobby...their negativity isn't welcome or their immature opinions

It's never a matter of whether it will ever be illegal. It won't be. If the courts already ruled the account agreements as valid and the content within them valid, then coming here and telling us that it isn't necessarily legal. It is not only legal, it has been ruled as such in court. Class-action lawsuits would be of no help.

The other truth is this: your account balance is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what's available and if you're available balance is negative, you will incur a lot of NSF fees, even if the account balance is positive. That's what happens when you use the debit card too often and don't keep an accurate register. Stop with the debit cards, keep a register, and you'll go a long way toward solving problems.

There is really no reason to be rude. I wasn't being bitter. My last post was actually quite amicable and your comments were uncalled for. If that is how you wish to play we can do that but I don't see any benefit in doing so.

"Yes, it is legal at the moment. But that's because no one has stepped up to make it ILLEGAL."

That contradicts what you wrote in your first post where you wrote that the fees are not necessarily legal. They are in fact legal provided that the fees are disclosed to the account holder which would have been in your welcoming pack.

Let's just say for the sake of argument that a few politicians pretended to be outraged by overdraft fees and passed a law to make them illegal. What then? Do you really think that banks will continue to allow consumers to rack up fees without some kind of penalty? I don't. They will probably make opening an account much more difficult.

I actually agree with you that in this economy there are better uses for money than paying bank fees. Where we seem to disagree is how to avoid overdraft fees. My approach is to prevent them from happening in the frst place which would show immediate results. Yours seems to be to wait for someone to make it illegal. Why not just stop paying them right away?

"Did you not see the part where I said that my account was still in the positive even after the charges? (I was $100 in the negative and that was after 9 unavailable funds fees. 9 x 35 = 315)"

Yes, I did see that. That doesn't answer my question though.

"Yes, the account was managed just fine. I know how to manage finances, thank you."

Nine overdraft fees suggests that an error was made somewhere and it would be wise to determine exactly how that happened.

"I think your time would be better spent picking your nose rather than coming on here and being bitter about people pointing out bad business practices."

Uncalled for nastiness. No reason to be childish.

"As you can see, I am only one of many with this problem with Wachovia."

According to a recent FDIC study, the majority of account holders do not pay overdraft or NSF fees. You are correct when you state that you are not the only one with this problem but all of the people who pay these fees are in the minority. I invite you all to come over to this side where we don't pay unneeded fees.

"It's not just me, so don't tell me I need to learn to manage my finances."

Actually, I didn't tell you that you need to learn to manage your finances. I suggested that a review is in order. Something allowed nine overdrafts to occur and I believe that you should determine how it happened so that you can avoid this situation in the future.

I don't know what you do for a living but in my job standing around and waiting for a problem to become illegal is unheard of. If a problem occurs, I am required to submit an action report that describes the problem, how it happened and what steps are being taken to ensure that it never happens again. If nine overdraft fees occured and I wrote my boss and said that we should wait for overdraft fees to become illegal, I'd be let go (and rightly so).

I think Edgeman has it right. It is entirely possible for your posted account balance to never be negative and still be charged OD fees. Checks and debits are paid from your available balance - not your posted balance. If on the night those items posted, you had a deposit that had not cleared funds availabilty, you would have been charged fees. In todays world, you have to keep track of your available balance and know when your money is available. Don't spend it until it is available.

I think Edgeman has it right. It is entirely possible for your posted account balance to never be negative and still be charged OD fees. Checks and debits are paid from your available balance - not your posted balance. If on the night those items posted, you had a deposit that had not cleared funds availabilty, you would have been charged fees. In todays world, you have to keep track of your available balance and know when your money is available. Don't spend it until it is available.

I think Edgeman has it right. It is entirely possible for your posted account balance to never be negative and still be charged OD fees. Checks and debits are paid from your available balance - not your posted balance. If on the night those items posted, you had a deposit that had not cleared funds availabilty, you would have been charged fees. In todays world, you have to keep track of your available balance and know when your money is available. Don't spend it until it is available.

I think Edgeman has it right. It is entirely possible for your posted account balance to never be negative and still be charged OD fees. Checks and debits are paid from your available balance - not your posted balance. If on the night those items posted, you had a deposit that had not cleared funds availabilty, you would have been charged fees. In todays world, you have to keep track of your available balance and know when your money is available. Don't spend it until it is available.

Did you not see the part where I said that my account was still in the positive even after the charges? (I was $100 in the negative and that was after 9 unavailable funds fees. 9 x 35 = 315) Yes, the account was managed just fine. I know how to manage finances, thank you. I think your time would be better spent picking your nose rather than coming on here and being bitter about people pointing out bad business practices.

As you can see, I am only one of many with this problem with Wachovia. It's not just me, so don't tell me I need to learn to manage my finances.

Yes, it is legal at the moment. But that's because no one has stepped up to make it ILLEGAL.

Yes, it is legal at the moment. But that's because no one has stepped up to make it ILLEGAL.

Not only is it legal, but you agreed to those fees when you opened your account.

Question- were the funds in your account full available when the transactions were authorized? It sounds like a negative balance was reached in the available balance. I don't know how you're going to make overdraft fees illegal. I would think that the time would be better spent reviewing your methods of managing finances.